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DEHVEREI)    AT    THE 

• 


CENTENNIAL    CELEBRATION 


OK   THE    SETILEMENT    OK 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY, 


ON    THE    SITE    OK 


HARDIN'S  OLD  FORT.  NEAR   HARDINSBURG, 


November  2d,  1882. 


By   WM.   C.   P.   BRECKINRIDGE. 


Published    at   the   request  of  the    Breckinridge    Centennial    Society. 


FRANK  1'  O  R  T  .     K  V  . : 

PRINTED   AT    TflE   KENTUCKY   YEOMAN   OFFICE. 

MAJOE,  JOHNSTON  &  BARRETT. 

1882. 


ADDRESS 


DKLIVERKI)    AT 


CENTENNIAL    CEL 


OK   THE    SETTI.F.MKNT    O. 


BEECKINKIDGE  CO 


ON     IHE    SITE    OF 


HARDIN'S  OLD  FORT,   NEAR   HARDIN; 


November  2d,  1882. 


By   WM.    C.    P.    BRECKINRIDGI 


Published   at   the   request  of  the    Breckinridge    Centc 


FRANKFORT,     KY.: 
PRINTED   AT    THE   KENTUCKY   YEOMAN  OFFl 
MAJOR,  JOHNSTON   &   BARRETT. 
1SS2. 


I  beseech  you,  sir,  to  reflect  on  the  delicate  situation  of  our  Constitu- 
tion. It  is  but  the  child  of  yesterday.  Let  us  not  expose  it  to  attacks 
which  its  imniatured  powers  may  not  be  able  to  repel.  But  young  as  the 
Constitution  is,  it  hath  wrought  miracles.  It  hath  made  happy,  men  from 
all  quarters  of  the  world.  Its  youth  and  its  merits  jointly  urge  it  upon 
us  to  touch  it  with  a  delicate  hand.  To  preserve  it  with  sacred  solicitude 
is  unfiuesiion.ibly  the  duty  of  every  man  who  values  liberty  and  property. 
*  *  *  •«■  -iC-  «  *  * 

I'or  my  own  part,  sir,  I  never  cast  my  eyes  over  my  country;  I  never 
contemplate  our  beautiful  political  fabric,  but  I  become  animated  by  the 
prospect,  and  triumph  in  the  advantages  I  possess  in  common  with  all  my 
fellow-citizens,  and  a  degree  of  transport  is  mingled  with  my  emotions 
when  I  consider  that  my  lot  is  cast  in  one  of  the  happiest  spots,  and  under 
one  of  the  best  Constitutions  in  the  whole  world. 

JOHN  BRECKINRIDGE. 

Jantakv  31,  1798. 

I  had  no  thought,  my  countrymen,  of  being  called  before  you  again 
after  so  long  an  interval;  and  it  is,  if  possible,  still  less  likely  that  I  shall 
ever  again  take  part  in  one  of  your  popular  assemblies.  If  God  had  so 
willed,  it  had  been  my  happiness  to  have  lived  and  labored  amongst  you, 
to  have  oiingled  my  dust  with  yours,  and  to  have  cast  the  lot  of  my 
children  in  the  same  heritage  with  yours.  \N'herever  I  live  or  wherever 
I  die,  I  shall  live  and  die  a  true  Kentuckian.  With  me  the  first  of  all 
appellations  is  Christian,  after  that  Gentleman,  and  then  Kentuckian 

ROBERT  J.  BRECKINRIDGE. 

The  whole  earth  may  rejoice  that  une  of  her  continent.--  abides  in  free- 
dom miglitiei-  tlian  ever  ;  and  tlie  inhal^itants  of  the  earth  whu  sigh  for 
deliverance  may  exult  as  they  turn  their  longing  eyes  towards  the  invincible 
land  where  the  free  dwell  and  are  safe.  We,  as  our  delivered  country 
starts  in  her  new  career,  wiser,  freer,  more  jjowt-rful  than  before ;  we, 
fearing  God  and  fearing  nothing  else,  must  consecrate  ourselves  afresh  to 
our  higher  destiny.  Peace,  and  not  force,  is  tile  true  instrument  of  mir 
mission  in  the  world;  instruction,  not  oppression  ;  example,  not  violence 
and  con(|uest,  our  way  to  bless  the  human  race.  But  force  and  violence 
and  conquest  are  words  which  the  nations  must  not  utter  to  us  any  more; 
are  things  which  they  must  learn  to  use  at  all  with  great  moderation  ;  and 
wrongfully  no  tiiore  at  all  in  the  track  where  our  duties  make  us  respon- 
sible for  conniving  at  their  crimes.  We  must  accept  our  destiny  in  all 
its  fullness  ;  and  run  our  great  career  with  jierfect  rectitude  and  majestic 
^^trength. 


It  is  God  who  calls  us  to  be  great,  in  all  that  flistiiiguishcs  the  race 
which  He  has  made  in  His  own  image.  It  is  God  who  requires  us  to  do- 
great  things  for  a  world  which  He  so  loved  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son  that  it  might  not  perish. 

ROBERT  J.   BRKCKINRIDGE. 

And  now,  Senators,  we  leave  this  memorable  chaml^er  bearing  with  us- 
unimpaired  the  Constitution  we  received  from  our  forefathers.  Let  us 
cherish  -it  with  grateful  acknowledgment  to  the  Divine  Power  who  con- 
trols the  destinies  of  empires,  and  whose  goodness  wje  adore.  The 
structures  reared  by  men  yield  to  the  corroding  tooth  of  time.  These 
marble  walls  must  moulder  into  dust;  but  the  principles  of  constitutional 
liberty,  guarded  by  wisdom  and  virtue,  unlike  material  elements,  do  not 
decay.  Let  us  devoutly  trust  that  another  Senate,  in  another  age,  shall 
bear  to  a  new  and  larger  chamber  this  Constitution  vigorous  and  inviolate, 
and  that  the  last  generation  of  posterity  shall  witness  the  deliberations  of 
the  Representatives  of  American  States  still  united,  prosperous,  and  free 

JOHN  C.   BRECKINRIDGE. 


ADDRESS. 


These  letters,^-  tny  countrymen,  just  read  in  your  hearing, 
furnish  evidence  of  the  love  felt  in  many  hearts  for  this 
dear  old  county.  In  the  library  of  the  eloquent  Holt;  in 
the  office  where  Green  conducts  with  consummate  skill  the 
affairs  of  the  great  company,  whose  chief  capital  is  the  har- 
nessed lightning  of  the  clouds;  in  the  Executive  Mansion  of 
the  lusty  giant  of  the  West,  the  powerful  young  Missouri, 
where  Crittenden  adds  dignity  to  an  honored  Kentucky 
name;  in  the  more  remote  Salt  Lake  City,  where  Murray, 
whose  spurs  were  won  in  boyhood,  strives  with  gallant  zeal 
to  perform  troublesome  duties  ;  in  office  and  shop,  in  field 
and  highway,  by  the  side  of  glowing  hearthstones  and  in 
every  clime,  these  exquisite  scenes  on  which  our  eyes  feast 
are  rising  before  the  loving  eyes  of  the  scattered  children 
of  Breckinridge  county;  sweet  memories  of  childhood  are 
surging  through  their  hearts.  The  precious  graves  of  the 
unforgotten  dead,  covered  in  the  beautiful  brown  of  a  lovely 
autumn,  rise  unbidden  between  their  work  and  them,  and 
prayers  for  you  and  yours  ascend  this  November  day  to 
Him  from  whom  all  mercies  flow. 

And  we  respond  with  proud  and  loving  hearts  and  eyes 
bedimmed  with  tears,  whose  mingled  sources  are  our  pride  . 
for  all  they  have  accomplished,  and  grief  at  the  absence  of 
their  beloved  faces;  "God  this  day  bless  every  son  and 
daughter  of  this  common  mother;  in  the  home  of  every 
such  child  may  peace  and  happiness  abide ;  may  the  day  of 
honest  toil  be  followed  by  the  night  of  sweet  repose  until 
night  is  swallowed  up  in  eternal  day." 

*  Immediately  before   llie   Address  letters   from   absent  sims  of   Breckin- 
ridge county  were  read. 


a  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

As  we  unroll  the  map  of  our  country  and  gain  some  con- 
ception of  our  heritage;  as  we  ponder  over  tlie  lengthened 
columns  of  our  last  census,  and  the  figures  become  instinct 
with  life  and  turn  into  freemen,  cities,  States,  and  all  that 
give  power  and  comfort  thereto ;  our  pride  is  sanctified  by 
gratitude  to  the  Fathers,  who  secured  this  heritage  and  made 
possible  this  result. 

As  we  view  the  consummation  of  a  century,  and  looking 
around  us  on  this  fruitful  and  free  land,  with  its  millions  of 
people,  its  aggregate  wealth,  its  happy  homes,  its  peaceful 
and  free  States,  its  powerful  and  successful  general  gov- 
ernment, yet  in  its  youth  honored  abroad,  the  hope  of 
the  generations  and  the  bulwark  of  freedom,  we  gain 
some  conception  both  of  the  hopes  of  those  fathers  and 
their  wisdom.  This  is  no  accident.  There  are  no  acci- 
dents in  the  economy  of  God;  there  is  no  luck  in  the  divine 
providence  which  inspires  the  inevitable  progression  of 
cause  and  effect.  All  the  Present  is  held  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Past:  the  Future  is  the  fruit  of  that  Present  and  Past. 
We  cannot  foresee  a//  that  may  be  produced  by  our  act; 
we  cannot  estimate  the  entire  force  of  the  influences  we  put 
in  motion;  the  modifying  power  of  other  agencies  cannot 
be  ascertained;  yet  the  outcome  is,  in  its  nature,  the  harvest 
due  to  the  seed  sown.  He  who  sows  good  seed  in  good 
ground,  with  honest  and  intelligent  toil,  may  confidently 
expect  to  reap  a  fruitful  harvest;  nay  more:  even  "they 
that  sow  in  tears  shall  reap  in  joy;  he  that  goeth  forth  and 
weepeth,  bearing  precious  seed,  shall  doubtless  come  again 
with  rejoicing,  bringing  his  sheaves." 

To-day  the  Alleghany  Mountains  mark  no  line  of  division  : 
from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  there  are  only  prosperous  and 
united  communities  ;  the  Mississippi  flows  in  majestic  power, 
twining  together  in  indissoluble  bonds  the  imperial  States 
nestled  in  its  surpassing  Valley  ;  the  mountain  ranges  of  the 
West  have  opened  their  bosoms  to  our  advancing  power, 
and  the  Pacific  ocean  guards  with  glad  and  placid  vigilance 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY.  7 

the  industrious  toilers  who  are  building  new  empires  on  its 
shores.  Within  these  wide  boundaries  thirty-eight  States 
have  been  solving  the  intricate  problem  of  American  Lib- 
erty :  the  problem  of  duplex  government — of  two  races — 
and,  with  God's  blessing,  have  become  powerful,  rich,  and 
contented.  The  benign  influences  of  religion,  the  pervasive 
power  of  education,  the  sweet  leadership  of  liberty,  have 
united  with  all  the  kindly  agencies  of  a  beneficent  nature, 
fertile  soil,  salubrious  climate,  exhaustless  inineral  re- 
sources, numerous  rivers,  to  give  to  the  favored  land  every 
blessing.  Well  might  the  fathers  say,  "  Si  moniuncntum 
reqiiiris ,  ci)  aims  pice . ' ' 

I-^or  this  was  not  always  so.  Wiien  Boone  on  June  7, 
1769,  feasted  his  eyes  with  "the  unrivaled  valley  of  the 
Kentucky,"  what  a  contrast  the  picture  of  to-day  would  have 
been  by  the  side  of  the  picture  of  that  day.  If  painter, 
poet,  or  orator  could  in  fitting  color  or  apt  word  produce 
these  two  portraits — paint  America  as  she  was  in  1769  and 
as  she  is  to-day — it  would  stagger  human  credulity  to  real- 
ize that  they  represe;it  the  same  country,  with  an  interval 
ol  only  one  hundred  and  twelve  years.  And  if  some  great 
thinker  would  with  equal  power  set  before  us  the  political 
(I  use  the  word  in  its  noble  signification)  surroundings  of 
those  people  with  those  of  our  country  to-day,  the  trans- 
formation would  be  as  astounding  as  is  the  ph}-sical  and 
material  transformation.  The  germs  of  each  existed  ;  the 
possibilities  of  each  were  in  e.\istence ;  the  "precious  seed" 
for  all  these  harvests  were  in  our  fathers'  possession,  and, 
even  if  soan  in  tears,  they  were  sown  with  true  intelligence, 
and  with  brave  confidence  in  the  result. 

In  the  thin  fringe  of  settlements  on  the  Atlantic  coast 
were  held  in  its  very  nature  the  capability  and  necessity  of 
future  growth,  and  these  settlements  were  themselves  the 
grovvth  of  this  peculiar  characteristic.  I  here  is  something 
in  that  great  race,  or  that  family  of  races  which  speak  the 
English    language,    which    necessitates   expansion,   growth, 


8  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

development,  in  lines  peculiar  to  itself.  This  race  seems  to 
have  instinctively  the  quality  to  found  empires,  form  organ- 
ized societies,  construct  States.  Social  order,  governmental 
forms,  administrative  justice  according  to  orderly  methods, 
a(;company  all  emigrants  of  this  race,  all  adventurers  of 
this  blood.  Wherever  there  be  a  camp,  where  the  sun  is 
greeted  in  this  tongue,  there  is  order,  and  the  capacity  of 
immediate  self-government,  and  the  prompt  administration 
of  justice  according  to  some  fair  and  impartial  procedure. 
But  this  peculiarity  had  been  of  slow  growth  through  the 
long  centuries,  and ,  it  struggled  upward  to  strength  and 
domination  amid  much  darkness.  Blood  and  pain  and 
broken  hearts  had  been  the  price  paid  for  the  exercise  of 
the  power  in  free  and  untrammeled  will. 

Along  the  Atlantic  the  colonists  found  homes,  and  under 
charters  from  kings  began  the  development  of  a  new  power 
in  this  virgin  continent. 

Not  like  Aphrodite  did  this  glorious  mistress  rise  from 
the  wave  into  the  full  radiance  of  unearthly  beauty  ;  not  like 
Minerva  did  she  spring  into  being,  the  perfect  form  of 
adorned  and  ravishing  wisdom.  Through  many  )^ears  of 
colonial  labor,  by  the  power  of  many  diverse,  and,  on  the 
surface,  conflicting  agencies,  grew  into  some  tangible  shape 
this  idol  of  the  West. 

There  is  an  exquisite  figure  in  the  Apostolic  epistle  of 
the  Temple  of  God,  the  stones  of  which,  builded  and  com- 
pacted together,  are  the  blood  bought  souls  for  whom 
Christ  died. 

It  is  not  irreverent  to  adopt  and  a[)ply  the  allegory.  The 
stones  for  our  temple,  like  those  of  Solomon,  were  being 
hewn  out  of  the  quarry,  being  also  "lively  stones."  In  this 
new  world,  guarded  as  it  had  been  by  the  fogs  of  the  sentry 
oceans  and  the  denser  fogs  of  human  ignorance,  the  slow 
and  bitter  fight  against  the  forests  of  nature,  the  Indian, 
the  traditions  of  tyranny  and  the  legal  claims  of  English 
domination,  had  reached  that  critical  moment  when  all  the 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTV.  9 

Colonies  must  unite  all  their  forces,  or  the  battle  was  lost. 
Thirteen  Colonies  had  taken  root.  The  colonists  had  be- 
come acclimated  in  the  highest  and  broadest  sense  of  that 
word.  They  had  become  countrymen  of  each  other  in  the 
holy  sense  of  that  ennobling  thought :  sons  of  a  common 
land,  brothers  sprung  from  a  common  vvoinb,  joint  heirs  of 
a  common  heritage.  That  heritage  was  not  only  of  hill  and 
dale,  of  mountain  fastness  and  outreaching  prairie,  of  the 
rushing  river  and  the  shore  on  which  crawled  the  creeping 
ocean  tide,  but  was  of  the  chartered  rights  and  the  tradi- 
tional liberties  of  English  colonists  and  the  inalienable  free- 
dom of  men.  All  that  belonged  to  men  as  men,  all  that 
was  the  birthright  of  Englishmen,  and  all  the  added  rights 
of  American  colonists,  formed  part  of  this  common  weal. 
The  fierce  foes  of  the  forests — nay,  the  forests  themselves — 
were  enough  to  appal  any  but  the  stoutest  heart.  The  con-  ■ 
tests  with  the  French  had  added  to  the  dangers  of  the  long 
probationary  struggle. 

And  it  was  indeed  a  sad  fate  which  brought  these  weak 
thirteen  Colonies  face  to  face  with  that  dread  alternative — 
submission  to  civil  and  political  serfdom,  or  the  unknown 
contingencies  of  such  a  struggle.  Our  fathers  were  clear- 
sighted and  wise,  as  well  as  brave  and  free.  They  saw  the 
immense  dangers  of  success,  as  well  as  the  great  evils  of  a 
most  possible  defeat.  They  realized  the  immense  difficulties 
that  success  would  bring,  and  the  sad  consequences  which 
defeat  would  entail.  It  was  in  no  blind,  haphazard  passion, 
no  thoughtless,  daredevil  recklessness,  that  our  Revolution- 
ary sires  met  these  appalling  duties. 

They  knew  that  if  the  Colonies  secured  independence  from 
English  domination,  the  dangers  and  difficulties  to  be  met 
and  surmounted  were  of  the  very  gravest  and  most  alarming 
nature,  and  were  of  every  possible  kind — physical,  political, 
financial.  The  entire  population  of  the>  thirteen  Colonies 
was  less  than  three  xnillion,  scattered  from  the  frozen  edge 
of  Canada  to   where  the  magnolia  fills  the  night  with   fra- 


10  CKXTKNNIAI.  CELEHRATIOX. 

grance  and  the  ni^'htingale  the  air  with  song.  These  set- 
tlements were  scattered  thinly  along  this  long  coast  by  the 
banks  of  the  rivers — a  mere  skein  of  population. 

The  boundless  continent  behind  held  the  implacable  In- 
dian, who  had  been  driven  slowly  back  by  the  combined 
power  of  colonist  and  British.  The  Spaniard  and  French 
had  foothold  on  the  Gulf  and  on  the  Pacific,  holding  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  a  ready  ally  to  the  Indian. 
So  that  the  narrow  strip  between  the  Appalachian  range 
and  the  sea  was  all  that  would,  in  fact,  constitute  the  United 
States  of  America  when  success  made  them  free.  Impov- 
erished by  such  a  war  as  would  follow;  with  no  accumulated 
wealth;  with  so  sparse  a  population;  with  the  British  in 
Canada,  the  Indian  behind  them,  the  Spaniard  and  French 
holding  Florida,  the  Gulf,  and  the  Mississippi,  national  ex- 
istence, much  less  national  expansion,  seemed  indeed  almost 
hopeless;  and  the  political  difficulties  added  to  the  dark 
forecastings.  It  was  not  one  Colony,  homogeneous  and 
unique.  The  political  factors  were  thirteen,  wifh  different 
charters,  with  diverse  traditions,  with  diverse  interests,  and 
every  possible  jealousy  that  can  be  generated  in  human 
breasts;  and  all  history  told  how  fierce  and  cruel  and  un- 
reasoning these  jealousies  could  be.  Grecian  Leagues, 
Italian  Confederacies,  German  Federations,  had  been  con- 
stant causes  of  fraternal  strife  and  savage  massacre.  Why 
should  not  Virginia  hate  as  Sparta  hated,  or  Massachusetts 
make  terms  with  a  foreign  foe  against  her  sisters,  as  heroic 
but  misguided  patriots  had  often  done?  Some  of  the 
wisest  saw  another  cloud,  then  no  larger  than  a  man's  hand, 
on  the  horizon — the  cloud  of  African  slavery — and  foretold 
the  storm  which  would  thence  fall. 

It  was  clear  to  our  far-sighted  sires  that  in  the  end  suc- 
cess required  the  conquest  of  the  continent;  that  the  subtle 
force  which  would  give  us  life  would  not  be  confined  within 
these  narrow  limits.  Nay  I  that  our  existence  would  depend 
on  that  expansion.     War  with  Great  Britain  meant  far  more 


HRKCKINRIHGE  COUNTY.  II 

than  that  mere  war.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  poh'cy  which 
had  for  its  object  national  independence,  founded  on  the 
union  of  sovereign  States,  into  which  was  to  be  brought  the 
continent. 

It  was  a  subh'nne  conception  in  its  magnificent  outline  as 
in  its  great  details,  and  we  this  day  are  witnesses  that  these 
seers  of  old  were  not  mere  dreamers  of  dreams. 

One  of  the  most  eloquent  of  modern  divines  has  drawn 
a  graphic  picture  of  St.  Paul  passing  over  from  Asia  to  the 
conquest  of  Europe  ;  of  the  insignificance  of  the  apparent 
force  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  proposed  end;  of  the 
cultured  Greek,  the  mighty  Roman,  the  nomadic  tribes  of 
the  Black  Forest,  the  fierce  Celt  and  mjstic  Druid,  to  be 
transformed  as  well  as  conquered  by  this  Jewish  servant 
of  a  crucified  Master;  and  then,  as  companion  picture,  the 
great  preacher  drew  Christian  Europe  in  her  glor}',  her 
might,  and  her  triumphs  Such  are  the  triumphs  of  truth — 
such  the  victories  of  moral  forces.  And  the  heroic  lovers 
of  truth,  who  can  look  beyond  the  day  of  their  labors  to  the 
morrow  of  their  triumph  are  the  true  leaders  of  the  world's 
progress,  even  though  they  seem  to  die  defeated  or  live  the 
objects  of  derision.  To  some  it  is  given  to  live  to  enjoy 
the  first  fruits  of  their  toils,  and  to  see  the  certaint}-  of  the 
end  of  their  labors.  Time  gives  to  these  favored  ones  the 
indorsement  of  its  approval,  while  immortality  waits  to 
bestow  its  crown.  It  is  in  honor  of  such  men  that  we  hold 
these  memorial  exercises  ;  to  recount  once  more  their  ser- 
vices;  tell  over  their  romantic  and  stirring  deeds;  reproduce 
the  dense  wilderness  and  tangled  underbrush,  and  repeople 
them  with  savage  beast  and  more  savage  red-man  ;  clothe 
again  this  fair  land  with  virgin  verdure,  and  have  our  hearts 
stirred  with  tale  of  ambush,  woe,  and  danger  ;  listen  with 
new  and  breathless  eagerness  to  story  of  sacrifice,  pain,  and 
endurance;  to  the  never  old  story  of  daring  men  and  heroic 
women,  building  loving,  even  if  rude,  log-cabin  homes,  a;id 
laying  the  foundations  of  a  new  State. 


T_>  CKNTENNTAL  CELEHRATION. 

It  is,  indeed,  an  enchanting  story  of  human  skill  and 
fortitude,  of  brave  endeavor  and  crafty  maneuver,  of  re- 
lentless attack  and  fierce  retort,  of  ceaseless  vigilance  and 
endless  danger — all  mellowed  by  the  golden  sheen  of  wifely 
love  and  womanly  devotion,  and  glorified  by  the  noble 
destinies  involved. 

It  has  been  told  over  and  over  to  unwearied  ears.  It  has 
never  lost  its  fresh  attraction  and  never  will. 

I  have  chosen  a  theme  less  attractive  than  the  deeds  of 
war  and  scout.  I  have  come  to  draw  other  pictures  than 
the  fierce  contests  in  brake  and  forest  between  Boone  and 
Kenton  and  Logan  and  Hardin  and  Todd  and  their  com- 
rades, and  the  brave  and  skillful  though  cruel  Indian.  To 
other  and  more  eloquent  tongues  I  resign  this  delightful 
labor. 

The  task  allotted  to  me  is  to  re-state  somewhat  of  the 
debt  that  good  order  and  free  government  owe  to  these 
brave  fighters  of  the  forest,  who  were  builders  more  than 
warriors,  and  that  which  they  builded  were  States.  Like 
those  who  re-builded  Jerusalem  after  the  captivity,  they 
were  warriors  only  because  they  could  not  otherwise  build. 
Wall  and  city  and  temple  must  be  builded,  even  if  they 
which  builded  on  the  wall,  and  they  that  bore  burdens  with 
those  that  laded,  every  one  had  with  one  of  his  hands  to 
labor,  and  with  the  other  hold  a  weapon.  It  is  as  builders 
that  I  desire  this  day  to  honor  these  fathers,  and  as  we 
renew  our  love  for  that  edifice,  whose  foundations  they  laid, 
we  give  new  utterance  to  our  grateful  admiration  of  them. 

The  American  Revolution  did  not  open  suddenly  nor 
unexpectedly.  The  beginnings  of  that  revolt  were  years 
before,  and  the  mutterings  of  the  storm  were  heard  by 
thoughtful  observers  long  before  the  cloud  appeared  on  the 
horizon.  As  early  as  1763  the  King  desired  to  limit  the 
growth  of  the  Colonies  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  to  con- 
fine the  increase  to  the  narrow  scope  between  the  moun- 
tain range  and  the  sea-coast,  most  of  which  was  accessible 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY.  ^•^ 

by  navigable    rivers,  and   all  of  which  could   be  controlled 
from  the  sea-coast  and  those  rivers. 

In  that  year,  a  royal  proclaination  expressly  forbade  the 
granting  warrants  of  survey  or  passing  patents  for  any 
land  beyond  the  heads  or  sources  of  any  of  the  rivers 
which  fall  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  from  the  west  or  south- 
west. 

It  was  in  defiance  of  this  royal  edict  that  Kentucky  was 
settled.  She  is  the  only  State  whose  very  existence  was  in 
express  disobedience  to  all  governmental  authority;  and  as 
the  mother  island  and  the  refractory  Colonies  become  more 
in  earnest  in  the  long  preliminary  dispute  that  preceded  the 
actual  clash  of  arms,  adventurous  hunters  and  daring  sur- 
veyors made  Kentucky  known  as  the  most  abundant  of 
hunting  fields  and  the  most  fertile  of  lands — a  country  alike 
inviting  to  the  hunter  and  farmer — a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,  charming  to  the  eye,  and  rich  to  the  earnest.  In 
1774,  while  the  Old  Bay  Colony  was  preparing  for  Bunker 
Hill,  and  Henry  was  thundering  in  Williamsburg,  and 
Franklin  was  urging  a  hesitating  Colony,  and  the  conflict 
was  at  hand,  a  house  was  built  in  this  beautiful  land — only 
a  log-cabin  it  was — yet  it  consecrated  all  the  State  to  that 
Anglo-Saxon  civilization  which  founds  the  State  on  the 
family,  and  it  was  evidence  that  the  adventurers  were  settlers. 
True,  as  yet  no  woman  had  come  to  occupy  this  home;  but 
it  was  built  for  women  to  inhabit.  And  after  the  Continental 
Congress  had  convened,  and  Bunker  Hill  given  bloody  proof 
that  American  militiamen  could  die  for  liberty,  and  Wash- 
ington was  at  the  head  of  the  Continental  army,  the  families 
of  Boone  and  other  pioneers  immigrated  here,  and  the 
corner-stone  of  the  new  State  was  placed  in  its  proper 
position,  in  defiance  of  royal  proclamation,  and  amid  the 
first  da}'s  of  the  new  era  of  national  independence,  in  the 
exquisite  valley  of  the  Kentucky,  began  the  infant  life  of 
the  first  born  of  American  liberty  and  American  institu- 
tions. Her  birth  was  coeval  with  that  of  the  New  Repub- 
hc,  and  her  history  covers  the  life  time  of  that  Republic. 


14  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

While  the  territory  was  part  of  Virginia,  and  these  few 
stations  and  forts  were  the  frontier  settlements  of  that  State, 
and  in  that  sense  were  Under  the  protection  of  her  laws, 
and  subject  to  her  authorities,  yet  practically  they  were 
wholly  beyond  any  protection  or  obedience.  The  distance 
and  the  dangers  alike  made  every  station  a  community  to 
itself,  and  united  all  the  stations  in  mutual  support  and 
defense.  These  pioneers  belonged  to  a  race  who  knew 
and  instinctively  obeyed  the  laws  of  order,  and  organized 
society  and  military  subordination,  and  the  habit  of  sub- 
mission to  law,  made  law  and  order  reign  in  this  new 
community.  The  liberty  of  our  ancestors  was  never  law- 
lessness. However  illiterate,  according  to  the  learning  of 
the  schools,  these  hunters  may  hav^  been,  they  were  learned 
in  the  important  lesson  that  order  is  the  first  great  law, 
and  submission  to  authority  the  first  necessity  for  freemen; 
and  during  those  long  years  of  revolution  and  war,  when 
civil  courts  might  well  be  powerless,  and  every  man  might 
have  temptation  to  be  a  law  unto  himself,  there  was  entire 
obedience  to  law  and  constituted  authority. 

In  the  very  midst  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  when  every 
nerve  was  being  strained,  and  every  resource  was  drained, 
the  expansive  power,  residing  in  all  great  eras,  and  in  all 
great  influences,  found  itself  able  to  increase  the  strength 
of  these  frontier  settlements;  and  in  October  of  1776,  the 
State  of  Virginia,  Patrick  Henry  being  Governor,  found 
time  to  create  a  county,  and  give  it  the  name  of  Kentucky, 
whose  territorial  limits  were  those  which  now  include  this 
State. 

This  was  j^robably  the  result  of  the  influence  of -George 
Rogers  Clark,  than  whom  few  Americans  deserve  better  of 
their  country,  and  to  whose  sagacity,  military  genius,  and 
statesmanlike  foresight  we  owe,  in  large  part,  the  successful 
preservation  of  that  superb  territory  out  of  which  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  were  carved; 
and  to  him  is  ascribed  the  first  intimation  that   the  situation 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY.  15 

of  Kentucky  was  such  that  she  was  needed  by  Virginia  as 
much  as  she  needed  Virginia,  and  that  as  an  independent 
State  she  had  a  future  worth  taking  many  risks  for.  He, 
more  clearly,  perhaps,  than  any  of  his  compeers,  saw  the 
necessity  of  destroying  the  Indian  power  north  of  the  Ohio 
river,  and  of  acquiring  the  right  of  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi  ;  and  that  a  State  so  fertile,  free  from  any  other 
burdens  than  its  own  exigencies,  would  attract  hardy  and 
enterprising  adventurers  bj^  promis'e  of  tracts  of  virgin  soil, 
and  the  fascinating  power  of  dangerous  enterprises.  He 
foresaw  the  greatness  of  that  wide  West  which  stretched 
from  the  western  foot-hills  of  the  Virginia  mountains  across 
the  great  river,  and  that  at  the  head  of  such  a  country  Ken- 
tucky might  have  a  grand  future.  He,  too,  with  his  broad 
forecast,  must  have  foreseen  that  it  would  be  destructive  to 
Virginia  to  hem  her  in  between  mountain  and  sea. 

How  far  he  opened  these  views  to  the  assembled  pioneers 
at  Harrodsburg  that  .sent  him  and  Gabriel  Jones  to  Rich- 
mond as  delegates  to  the  State  authorities,  is  a  matter  of 
doubt.  That  he  unfolded  them  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia, 
the  prophetic  Henry,  to  whom,  as  yet,  history  has  not  given 
his  true  place,  and  who  was  as  sagacious  as  a  statesman  as 
he  was  eloquent  as  an  orator,  is  beyond  doubt;  and  that 
wise  magistrate  immediately  entered  into  the  plans  of  Clark 
to  afford  Kentuck\'  all  the  fostering  and  protecting  aid  pos- 
sible in  the  midst  of  those  revolutionary  dangers.  The  first 
aid  were  military  stores  and  proper  commissions;  the  next, 
the  protection  of  civil  government  and  the  presence  of 
legally  authorized  magistrates  ;  so  that  civil  government 
and  military  organization  followed  Clark's  visit  to  Virginia. 
The  views  of  Clark  and  Henry  were  communicated  to,  and 
shared  b\-,  Jefferson,  who,  when  Governor,  exerted  himself 
to  the  uimost  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  ultimate  exten- 
sion of  our  western  boundary  to  the  Pacific  slope.  As 
earl\-  as  1778  Jefferson  ordered  possession  to  be  taken  of 
the  bank  of  the  Mississipi)i  river,  and  a  fort  built  thereon  ; 
and  in  1780  Clark  obeyed  this  order. 


l(i  .  CENTENNIAL  CEEEBRATION. 

This  act  and  the  mih'tary  successes  of  Clark,  in  ail  proba- 
bility, prevented  the  success  of  the  intrigue  of  the  Spanish 
and  French  courts  in  1780  to  take  advantage  of  the  condi 
tion  of  the  United  States,  and  obtain  a  pledge  to  limit  the 
States  to  the  territory  east  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  give  to 
Spain  the  territory  south  of  the  Ohio.  This  would  have 
resulted,  necessarily,  in  securing  to  Great  Britain  the  terri- 
tory north  of  the  Ohio.  If  this  plan  had  been  successful, 
the  destiny  of  America'  would  indeed  have  been  altered 
beyond  our  ability  to  conjecture.  If  Spain  had  held  all 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  on  the  east  thereof,  all  south 
of  Ohio,  including  Kentucky,  part  of  Tennessee,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana,  and  Great  Britain  had 
retained  the  Canadas,  and  that  fertile  empire  bounded  on 
the  south  by  the  Ohio,  and  on  the  west  by  the  Mississippi, 
what  would  the  century  have  produced?  Some  knowledge 
of  these  intrigues  was  possessed  by  the  leading,  men  in  Ken- 
tucky, but  they  were  not  generally  known,  and  ignorant  of 
this  danger,  year  by  year  new  families  join  those  who  had 
found  their  way  across  the  blue  mountains  and  through  the 
wilderness  until  Virginia,  staggering  under  the  dreadful  bur- 
den of  the  lengthened  war,  yet  mindful  somewhat  of  these 
far  off  sons,  divided  the  county  of  Kentucky  into  three 
counties,  and  blotted  this  Indian  name  from  the  map  and 
from  political  association.  Other  counties  of  Virginia  had 
thus  been  divided,  and  their  names  never  restored,  and,  so  far 
as  I  know,  this  is  the  only  instance  of  the  obliteration  and 
restoration  of  a  political  name  to  the  same  territorial  divis- 
ion; and  from  1780  to  1783  there  was  no  Kentucky;  yet 
the  name  constantly  appears  in  all  the  contemporaneous 
writings;  and  in  popular  speech  and  general  talk  it  is  called 
Kentucky,  and  in  1783  the  name  was  restored,  and  the 
counties  of  Fayette,  Jefferson,  and  Lincoln  united  into  the 
District  of  Kentucky,  and  this  district  is  given  a  district 
court,  with  all  common  law,  chancery,  and  criminal  jurisdic- 
tion. 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY.  17 

Peace  was  declared,  independence  had  been  recognized, 
and  the  armies  of  the  Revolution  were  disbanded,  and 
many  of  its  tried  veterans  sought  a  new  home  in  this 
new  land — soldiers  of  liberty,  who  had  won  a  country  by 
their  valor,  sought  now  to  win  a  home  where  that  liberty 
could  be  enjoyed.  The  league  formed  by  the  Indian  tribes 
to  crush  the  infant  settlements  had  been  frustrated  ;  but  the 
•danger  of  invasion  was  not  yet  ended.  So  long  as  the 
power  of  the  Northwestern  tribes  was  not  broken,  Kentuck)' 
was  in  constant  danger,  and  rapid  increase  improbable. 

To  the  dangers  of  invasion  from  the  Northern  Indians 
■was  added  the  startling  rumor  of  a  threatened  attack  from 
the  Indians  of  the  South.  The  organization  of  the  District 
was  purely  judicial ;  the  military  power  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  militia  officers  of  the  three  counties,  and  there  was 
no  common  head,  and  no  executive  power  nearer  than 
Richmond.  There  was  immediate  need  of  mutual  protec- 
tion, and  some  common  authority  near  at  hand.  Out  of 
this  necessity  action  sprang.  As  is  the  case  with  our  P2ncr- 
lish-speaking  race,  the  action  was  prompt,  but  orderly. 
Col.  Logan,  second  in  military  reputation  only  to  Gen. 
Clark,  and  not  second  to  him  in  weight  of  character  and  in 
the  affections  and  confidence  of  the  people  of  the  District, 
summoned  the  leading  citizens,  all  of  whom  had  been  sol- 
diers, to  meet  in  Danville,  "to  consult  as  to  what  measures 
should  be  taken  for  the  common  defense." 

It  was  a  notable  meeting — called  not  in  violation  of  law, 
not  for  revolution,  but  to  supply  by  voluntary  effort  and 
organization  the  absence  of  that  needed  executive  power 
which  every  community  must  exercise, ^and  which  must  be 
so  placed  as  to  render  it  available  at  a  moment's  notice. 
Every  one  in  that  council  had  been  a  soldier  of  freedom, 
and  was  thoroughly  learned  in  all  the  principles  involved  in 
the  late  struggle.  Most  of  them  were  by  blood  and  rear- 
ing Virginians.  The  gravity  of  their  condition  forced  them 
to  the  conclusion   that  they  must  have  a  government  inde- 


IS  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

pendent  of  Virginia.  It  will  be  remembered  that  thi.s  was 
before  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution — before  the 
gift  by  Virginia  of  the  Northwest  to  the  General  Govern- 
ment. Up  to  this  period,  no  Starte  had  organized  itself. 
All  the  States  had  been  Colonies,  formed  under  and  by 
virtue  of  charters  which  created  executive,  legislative,  and 
judicial  offices,  and  these  Colonies  had  passed  from  Colonial 
to  State  existence  by  the  declaration  of  the  Legislatures 
created  by  these  charters.  No  State  had  been  carved  out 
of  a  State. 

The  experiment  of  the  organization  of  an  independent 
State  to  remain  a  part  of  the  confederation  had  never  been 
made.  This  problem  met  this  assembly — an  assembly  with-^ 
out  legal  authority.  These  men  were  absolute  believers  in 
the  two  fundamental  principles  of  the  American  concep- 
tion of  liberty,  to-wit :  that  all  men  were  free,  and  that 
governments  rested  on  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

To  make  these  efficient,  it  followed  that  in  every  body  of 
freemen  rested  inalienably  the  right  of  free  assemblage  and 
orderly  organization  to  ascertain  and  make  potent  the  will 
of  the  governed.  This  these  men  proceeded  to  do.  They 
recommended  that  each  militia  company  should,  on  a  fixed 
day,  elect  one  delegate  to  meet  in  Danville  on  December  27, 

1784. 

The  militia  company  was  selected,  doubtless,  because  it 
was  easily  assembled  ;  it  was  a  legally  constituted  body,  and 
in  them  were  enrolled  all  the  men  of  the  District.  The 
courageous  and  thoughtful  Logan,  therefore,  put  into  motion 
that  movement  which  ended  in  the  admission  of  Kentucky 
as  a  State.  But  from  1784  to  1792  very  much  patience 
was  needed,  and  some  important  contributions  to  political 
science  were  made. 

The  convention  elected  by  these  companies  met,  and  after 
grave  and  earnest  debate,  came  to  the  resolution  that  the 
proper  steps  ought  to  be  taken  to  obtain  an  act  to  render 
Kentucky  independent  of  Virginia;  but  the  first  step  in  this 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY.  lit 

was  to  ascertain  the  will  and  obtain  the  consent  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  to  do  this,  this  convention  recommended  the  elec 
tion  of  delegates  to  another  convention,  the  members  to 
which  convention  should  be  elected  by  the  three  counties 
on  the  principles  of  equal  representation,  i.  e.,  of  numbers. 
This  seems  to  us  so  just  and  so  simple  as  to  excite  no  re- 
mark. Yet  it  was  a  wide  departure  from  all  English  and 
Virginia  custom,  and  a  long  step  in  advance  toward  po[)u]ar 
government.  Borough  representation — representation  based 
on  wealth,  or  on  intelligence,  or  on  favoritism,  but  never  on 
numbers — had  been  long  known  and  enjoyed. 

The  mere  idea  of  representation  in  government  contains 
in  germ  the  entire  conception  of  a  free  representative  gov- 
erninent.  So  soon  as  he  who  makes  the  laws  does  so  b\^ 
virtue  of  a  delegated  power — as  the  representative  of  a  con- 
stituency—  speaking  in  the  name  of  others,  the  germinal 
conception  of  a  free  government  has  taken  form  ;  and  time 
and  fortunate  circumstance  may  develop  it  into  perfection. 

But  in  that  day  it  is  indeed  remarkable  that  these  back- 
woodsmen— these  pioneer  hunters  in  hunting  shirts — should 
have  seen  so  clearly  the  true  pathway  before  them  and 
their  State,  and  from  the  beginning  settled  every  question 
on  the  broadest  basis,  on  the  securest  principles,  weaving  no 
bonds  to  be  loosened.  Froni  that  day  Kentucky  has  adhered 
to  this  broad  principle — that  representation  shall  be  equal — 
based  on  the  number  of  her  free  population.  Virginia  has 
followed  the  example  thus  set  her  by  her  daughter;  and 
the  fierce  contests  concerning  parliamentary  representation 
reveal  how  far  in  advance   our   sires  were. 

Another  great  stride  was,  that  no  qualification  except 
manhood  was  affixed  to  the  right  of  suffrage. 

If  possible,  this  was  a  greater  departure  from  the  tradi- 
tions these  men  brought  from  Virginia.  In  all  America 
there  was  no  State  that  did  not  require  a  jiroperty  qualifica- 
tion. All  men  were  free  undoubtedly,  but  all  men  were  not 
voters.  "  Theelective  franchise"  was,  in  a  certain  sense,  a 
gift.     Some  had  to  possess  it.     Those  who  did,  represented 


•20  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

the  whole  body  of  her  people,  but  to  what  classes  this  priv- 
ilege should  be  accorded  was  held  to  be  a  matter  of  choice, 
to  be  determined  by  constitutional  provision  or  legislative 
action.      Manhood  suffrage  was  unknown.  <« 

In  those  early  days.  Kentucky  not  only  blazed  the  way 
for  all  communities  to  become  States,  but  she  gave  to 
American  liberty  these  two  great  contributions — equal 
representation  and  suffrage  without  property  qualification. 
Man  as  man  was  free.  When  he  became  citizen  he  re- 
mained free,  and  entitled  to  his  voice  in  the  elections  held 
to  ascertain  his  will  ;  and  not  only  to  his  vote,  but  that  this 
vote  should  have  equal  power  with  every  other  vote  in 
every  other  part  of  the  State.  This  was  the  simple  but 
sublime  conception  these  pioneers  had  of  a  free  citizen  and 
a  representative  government. 

And  yet  these  men,  with  such  radical  notions,  were  con- 
servative and  orderly  and  patient.  Kentucky  was  part  of 
Virginia,  and  these  men  owed  obedience  to  her  laws,  respect 
to  her  authorities,  confidence  in  her  desire  to  do  justice, 
and  therefore  her  consent  must  be  asked,  and  every  proper 
means  taken  to  secure  this  consent. 

In  the  end,  independence — this  was  determined  ;  but  to 
accomplish  that  end  only  lawful,  orderly,  and  peaceable 
means  were  to  be  employed.  The  patience  of  the  truly 
brave  is  always  great  ;  the  free  who  are  brave  add  dignity  to 
patience.  Another  year  and  another  Convention  ;  still 
another,  and  the  fifth,  Convention  assembles,  and  it  con- 
siders another  question — tlie  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
river. 

I  have  not  the  space  to  enter  into  the  details  concerning 
this  vexed  matter. 

It  was  charged  that  the  Eastern  States  had  voted  to  sur- 
render the  claim  to  the  right  of  free  navigation,  and  had 
authorized  Mr.  Jay  to  propose  to  cede  this  right  for  a  long 
term  of  years.  It  is  true  that  there  were  good  grounds  for 
such  a  charge;  certainly  seven  of  the  Northeastern  States 
had  so  voted,  and  Congress  did  rescind  its  former  instruc- 


BRECKINRIDGK  COUNTY.  21 

tion  to  conclude  no  treaty  without  obtaining  the  free  navi- 
gation of  the  Mississippi  from  its  source  to  its  mouth. 
Rivers  were  then  the  great  highways  of  commerce;  and 
the  topography  and  geography  of  Kentucky  rendered  her 
pecuHarly  dependent  on  this  river.  Hemmed  in  by  moun- 
tains, separated  from  the  centers  of  trade  r\nd  population 
by  hundreds  of  miles  of  wilderness,  her  only  hope  of  mar- 
ket, her  only  outlet  was  down  this  inland  sea.  All  her  peo- 
ple saw  and  felt  this.  To  deprive  her  of  this  was  to  seal 
up  her  only  hope  for  wealth  and  commerce  or  trade.  That 
this  should  be  done,  not  only  with  the  consent  but  by  the 
proposition  of  the  East,  and  that  for  the  paltry  trade  of 
the  Mediterranean,  caused  bitter  and  angry  emotion. 

But  among  her  more  thoughtful  were  added  higher  mo- 
tives and  loftier  thoughts.  These  believed  that  free  institu- 
tions could  be  preserved  only  by  conquering  the  continent; 
that  the  true  mission  of  Kentucky  was  to  push  the  frontiers 
northward  and  westward  ;  that  her  development  was  toward 
the  setting  sun.  To  these  this  free  navigation  was  a  means, 
not  an  end.  It  was  a  step  towards  the  end.  It  was  vital  in 
the  broad  sweep  of  this  hope.  This  was  not  new  to  these 
men.  The  ante-revolutionary  statesmen  possessed  the  same 
broad  views;  the  men  of  the  Revolution  shared  them; 
Clark  unfolded  them  to  Henry,  and  to  render  them  possible, 
Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes  were  captured  ;  Jefferson  based 
his  hope  for  the  country  on  their  fulfillment. 

To  these  was  to  be  added  the  ambitious,  who  saw  in  tlu^ 
leadership  of  Kentucky  as  an  independent  State,  at  the  head 
of  all  the  West,  field  for  fame,  position,  and  wealth. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  uneasiness  took  hold 
of  the  [)eople  ;  and  that  to  the  determination  to  i)e  inde- 
pendent of  Virginia  was  added  the  resolve  that  no  power 
should  close  this  mighty  ri\er  to  their  commerce;  and  from 
this  resolve  grew  tJiat  series  of  efforts,  thai  ceaseless  agitation  ^ 
xvJiich  elided  in  the  purchase  and  annexation  of  tlie  lerritory 
of  Louisiana. 


22  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

I  will  not  trespass  on  your  patience  to  recount  the  other 
successive  steps  until  Kentucky  became  a  member  of  the 
Federal  Union  under  the  new  Constitution.  She  had  waited 
for  eight  years.  She  had  seen  the  Confederation  give  place 
to  the  new  government.  She  had  demonstrated  that  Amer- 
ican institutions  were  sufficient  to  render  the  expansion  and 
increase  of  new  States  practically  without  limit.  It  was  her 
lot  to  exhibit  the  process  in  the  slowest,  most  harassing, 
and  troublesome  manner  by  which  a  free  people  can  trans- 
form themselves  into  organized  States;  and  that  the  mode 
adopted  in  the  Constitution  by  which  new  States  could  be 
admitted  into  the  Union  was  a  feasible,  simple,  and  peace- 
able process. 

She  had,  furthermore,  contributed  to  all  new  States,  free 
from  old  charters  and  the  trammels  of  old  traditions,  that 
equal  representation  and  manhood  suffrage  were  the  true 
foundation  on  which  to  build. 

She  had  prevented  the  cession  of  our  claim  to  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  And  all  this  had  been  done 
by  men  whose  perilous  daring  had  won  this  land,  whose 
unerring  rifles  had  made  Virginia's  title  to  the  Northwest 
good,  before  whom  forests  fell,  and  at  whose  hands  civil 
government  and  happy  homes  arose  ;  men.  not  many  of 
whom  were  learned  in  the  learning  of  the  schools,  nor 
known  to  fame.  B'"ave,  sagacious,  far  seeing  men,  there  is 
no  presence  in  which  they  need  uncover;  no  assembly  of 
the  world's  leaders  where  they  ma}'  not  sit  at  ease  as 
among  peers  ;  no  Pantheon  that  would  not  be  honored  by 
their  presence. 

I  ought  not  to  omit  that,  in  the  very  fore  front  of  her 
Constitution,  is  another  instance  of  how  exact  and  true  was 
their  conception  of  a  free  government.  All  the  functions  of 
government  can  be  separated  into  three  great  departments, 
no  more  and  no  less:  the  power  to  make  the  law,  the  power 
to  declare  the  law,  the  power  to  execute  the  law — the  legis- 
lative, the  judicial,  the  executive  functions.  These  exhaust 
governmental  functions  and  powers. 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY.  -J;^ 

When  they  are  united  in  one  person,  and  he  with  power 
to  make,  declare,  and  execute  his  will  as  law,  and  at  his 
pleasure,  it  is  unlimited  despotism.  If  he  agree  to  first 
make  the  law,  and  only  execute  that,  a  great  gain  has  been 
made.  If  the  power  to  declare  the  law  is  taken  from  him, 
an  immense  stride  has  been  made  towards  protection.  If 
the  power  to  make  the  law  is  taken  from  him,  we  have  the 
beginning  of  a  free  government.  Our  fathers,  in  their  Con- 
stitutions of  the  original  thirteen  States,  and  of  the  Federal 
Constitution,  following  the  general  example  of  the  British 
Constitution,  separated  these  great  powers  and  functions, 
and  made  the  pozvcrs  of  these  departments  separate.  George 
Nicholas  and  the  Convention  of  Kentucky  went  one  step 
further,  and  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  political 
science,  that  I  am  aware  of,  separated  the  persons  as  well  as 
the  poivers.  We  are  so  accustomed  to  these  simple  sen- 
tences that  we  forget  how  valuable  they  are,  and  how  nec- 
essary  to    the   preservation    of   pure    and   free    institutions. 

Other  States  have  adopted  in  ipsissimis  verbis  these  sec- 
tions: 

Article  I,   Fikst  Kentucky  Constitution. 

§  I.  The  powers  of  government  shall  be  divided  into 
three  distinct  departments,  each  of  them  to  be  confided 
to  a  separate  body  of  magistracy,  to- wit:  those  which  are 
legislative  to  one,  those  which  are  executive  to  another,  and 
those  which  are  judiciary  to  another. 

§  2.  No  person,  or  collection  of  persons,  being  of  one  of 
these  departments,  shall  exercise  any  power  properly  be- 
longing to  either  of  the  others,  except  in  the  instances 
hereinafter  expressly  permitted. 

While  a  few  names  appear  often  in  these  Conventions — 
George  Muter,  James  Speed.  Matthew  Walton,  Harry  Innis, 
Caleb  Wallace,  Isaac  Cox,  Levi  Todd — and  while  conspicu- 
ous names — Isaac  Shelby.  James  Garrard,  James  Wilkinson, 
Humphrey  Marshall.  John  lirown,  Christopher  Greenup, 
Alexander  Scott  Bullitt,  and  others — adorn  the  list  of  mem- 
bers, only  two  men  were  members  of  all  these  Conventions 
— Samuel  McDowell  aad   Benjamin  Logan.     To   Logan  be- 


24  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

longs  the  honor  of  inaugurating  the  movement   which   he 
lived  to  see  successful,   and   in   which,    in  every  detail,   he. 
was  an  active  participant. 

Samuel  McDowell  was  called  to  preside  over  all  these 
Conventions,  and  how  much  Kentucky  owes  to  his  resolute 
and  conservative  opinions,  and  to  his  pure  and  well  balanced 
character,  we  may  never  be  able  to  estimate.  He  was  in- 
clined to  be  an  emancipationist,  and  leant  to  the  Federal 
party  in  his  views,  as  indeed  did  at  first  that  group  of  lead- 
ing men  who  made  Danville  their  place  of  meeting,  and  who 
belonged  to  that  famous  club,  whose  proceedings  have 
recently  been  narrated  in  masterly  style  by  one  whose  ma- 
ternal ancestors  helped  to  ordain  and  establish  these  Con- 
stitutions. 

Thomas  Todd  was  the  Secretary  of  every  one  of  these 
Conventions.  Clerkly,  prompt,  ambitious,  capable,  his  aid 
was  invaluable  in  these  formative  times,  and  though  he 
became  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  he  is  fast  fading  inta 
oblivion.  Cannot  some  one,  in  the  pious  spirit  of  Old  Mor- 
tality, re-cut  these  names  on  their  crumbling  tombstones^ 
and  a  new  Scott  breathe  the  life  of  genius  into  their  noble 
and  fruitful  lives,  and  reproduce  their  deeds  and  words  to  a 
State  who  owes  them  so  much  ? 

The  names  of  Logan  and  of  the  Todds  have  been  perpet- 
uated by  counties,  but  no  such  memorial  has  been  erected 
by  a  grateful  country  to  Samuel  McDowell. 

The  men  who  composed  these  various  Conventions  were 
no  common  men.  They  had  served  under  Washington  and 
Greene  and  Campbell  in  the  campaigns  of  the  East  and  the 
South.  They  had  driven  the  regulars  of  Great  Britain 
before  their  resistless  charge.  They  were  the  heroes  of 
unnumbered  dangers  in  Indian  combat  —  of  scout  and 
hunt  and  skirmish.  They  had  heard  Henry  in  the  Raleigh, 
tavern,  and  met  Wythe,  Mason,  Jefferson  at  the  council 
board  as  their  equals.  In  camp  and  council,  in  field  and 
wilderness,  under  starry  skies   and  around  the  slumbering 


]5RF,CKINRIDGE  COUXTV.  L'.v 

camp-fires,  they  had  been  trained  so  that  body  and   brain, 
heart  and  soul,  were  developed  to  their  highest  stature. 

In  the  silences  of  the  forests  they  had  communed  with 
God,  and  sounded  the  depths  of  their  own  souls.  In  the 
solitude  of  the  wilderness  they  had  held  communion  with 
Nature,  and  heeded  her  august  and  loving  teachings.  God 
and  Nature  and  their  own  hearts  had  taught  them  how 
noble  was  Man,  how  paltry  the  accidental  rank. 

Men  were  these  founders  of  a  State — fit  brethren  to  those 
who  have  made  Plymouth  Rock  immortal,  to  those  who  sat 
in  judgment  on  a  King,  and  made  England  a  common- 
wealth, of  those  who  gathered  about  William  the  Silent  or 
Martin  Luther — grave,  patient,  heroic,  simple,  sincere,  wise. 
The  arena  on  which  they  played  their  parts  was  the  distant 
and  obscure  backwoods  of  a  frontier  community.  Their 
numbers  were  small;  there  were  no  great  armies,  no  flaunt- 
ing banners,  no  royal  commanders,  with  gay  trappings  nor 
stately  ceremonials  ;  }'et  the  part  they  played  is  immortal, 
and  they  played  it  nobly.  They  were  fit  fathers  to  the 
State  they  loved  and  who  now  honors  them. 

But  the  pioneer  work  of  Kentucky  was  not  ended  when 
she  became  a  State.  It  will  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
for  us  to  estimate  correctly  the  position  and  condition  of 
Kentucky  in  June,  1 792.  Her  population  was  under  one 
hundred  thousand.  The  posts  in  the  Northwest  had  not 
been  surrendered,  and  the  confederacy  formed  by  the  genius 
of  Tecumseh  was  alert  and  powerful.  Her  land  titles  were 
complex,  doubtful,  and  embarrassing.  She  was  under  a 
perpetual  fear  of  the  closing  of  the  Mississippi. 

She  was  so  remote  from  her  sister  States  and  the  seat  of 
the  Federal  Government,  as  to  feel  that  she  received  only 
nominal  benefits  from  her  connection  with  them,  and  that  in 
important  respects  her  interests  were  held  to  be  adverse  to 
theirs.  The  majority  of  her  representatives  in  the  Virginia 
Convention  had  voted  against  the  adoption  of  the  Federal 
Constitution,  and  the  vast  majorit)-  of  her  citizens  cordially 
approved   this  action   and   shared   the    grave   suspicions   of 


2()  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

Heni}-.   and   looked   with   distrust   upon    the   great   powers 
bestowed  on  the  central  government. 

Without  any  established  financial  system,  and  poor  in 
all  thi>^  world's  goods,  save  a  soil  of  surpassing  fertility; 
burdened  with  the  oppressive  expenses  of  constant  military 
organization  and  Indian  campaigns  which  she  believed  were 
not  carried  on  with  proper  vigor,  nor  in  a  generous  spirit  by 
the  Federal  authorities,  it  is  not  strange  that  murmurs  of 
discontent  were  often  heard. 

The  discovery,  settlement,  defense,  and  organization  of 
Kentucky  were  of  the  precise  nature  to  cultivate  the  spirit 
of  self-dependence  and  of  careless  independence  of  all 
exterior  authority.  In  defiance  of  royal  orders  had  she 
been  settled;  almost  without  assistance  had  she  been  con- 
quered to  civilization  ;  with  reluctant  consent,  and  after  the 
most  annoying  obstructions,  had  she  been  permitted  to 
become  an  independent  State.  As  her  people  recalled  the 
steps  of  her  history,  they  felt  that  they  had  won  and  earned 
all  they  had  obtained,  and  in  their  hearts  felt  that  by  them- 
selves, if  untrammeled  by  other  exterior  authority,  they 
would  win  all  they  yet  desired. 

The  influence  of  Gen.  Hamilton  and  the  East  in  the 
councils  of  General  Washington  was  dreaded  in  Kentucky, 
and  the  election  of  Mr.  Adams  was  received  with  alarm. 

It  was  in  this  state  of  public  sentiment  that  the  news  of 
the  passage  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  was  received, 
and  instantly  Kentucky  was  ablaze.  These  bills  violated 
every  principle  cherished  by  the  statesmen  and  people  of 
this  democratic  State.  They  were  based  on  a  theory  that 
really  made  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government  unlim- 
ited, and  gave  to  the  Executive  despotic  authority. 

If  they  were  constitutional,  Congress  could  add  to  the 
crimes  enumerated  in  the  Constitution  as  within  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Federal  Courts,  and  by  statute  both  create 
an  offense  and  then  confounding  the  broad  distinction  be- 
tween the  executive  and  judicial  functions,  clothe  the  Presi- 


BRECKINRIDEE  COUNTY.  27 

dent  with  power  of  arrest  and  exile.  They  struck  at  the 
freedom  of  the  press,  of  speech,  of  pubHc  discussion,  of  pop- 
ular assemblies,  as  well  as  at  alien  friends.  That  they  were 
passed  at  the  time  and  as  one  of  a  series  of  measures  when 
war  with  France  was  anticipated,  added  to  the  intense  oppo- 
sition felt  in  Kentucky.  Public  meetings  were  held  every- 
where in  the  State,  and  all  these  measures  denounced.  The 
sedate  and  conservative  George  Nicholas  felt  called  on  to 
publish  an  open  letter  denouncing  the  acts  as  unconstitu- 
tional, and  that  this  was  known  to  those  members  of  Con- 
gress who  voted  for  them,  and  the  President  who  approved 
them. 

In  almost  all,  if  not  in  all,  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the 
public  meetings,  among  the  toasts  at  muster  and  barbecue, 
there  were  united  with  the  denunciation  of  these  acts  ex- 
pressions of  resolute  purpose  to  secure  the  free  navigation 
of  the  Mississippi ;  and  it  seems  to  have  been  universally  felt 
in  the  State  that  the  continuance  in  power  of  the  Federal 
party  would  be  followed  by  the  cession  of  this  claim. 

Some  of  the  addresses  and  resolutions,  and  series  of  toasts 
are  known  to  have  been  written  by  one  who  had  migrated 
to  Kentucky  after  she  had  become  a  State  ;  and  in  these 
appeared  a  construction  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  which, 
if  true,  gave  to  Kentucky  and  each  of  the  States  the  right 
to  protect  her  citizens  against  the  operation  of  an  unconsti- 
tutional Federal  ^ct.  And  in  some  of  them  were  sentences 
which  contained  the  thought  that  the  true  mission  of  the 
Union  was  to  people  the  whole  Continent,  and  as  speedily  as 
possible  carve  new  States  out  of  the  outstretching  West, 
which  should  be  received  into  the  Union  on  e(|ual  footing  with 
the  original  States  ;  that  this  was  possible  only  on  the  theory 
that  these  States  could  protect  themselves  and  their  citi- 
zens against  usurpation  b)'  either  the  General  (jovernment 
or  their  co-States.  That  as  between  these  new  and  at  first 
necessarily  weak  States,  and  the  General  Government  and 
their  co-States,  the  Constitution  was  the  compact  of  union. 


2S  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

containing  all  the  terms  and  stipulations  of  the  contract,  all 
the  powers  granted  or  to  be  exercised,  all  the  burdens  to  be 
borne  ;  that  the  people  of  these  new  States  could  understand 
from  the  perusal  of  this  Constitution  the  precise  terms  on 
which  they  could  be  received  into  the  Union,  and  weigh  all 
the  duties  and  contingencies  resulting  from  such  a  union. 
But  if  that  Constitution  was  not  the  measure  of  the  powers 
of  the  General  Government  and  of  the  co-States,  if  there 
resided  anywhere  unlimited  power  to  add  new  burdens 
against  the  protest  of  the  State,  and  in  open  violation  of 
that  compact,  for  which  violation  the  new  State  had  no 
remedy,  except  by  appeal  to  the  very  Government  who  had 
committed  the  violation,  then,  indeed,  would  it  be  folly 
for  these  new  States  to  seek  a  connection  where  they  would 
be  at  the  unrestrained  mercy  of  distant  and  at  times,  per- 
haps, hostile  States,  whose  numbers  and  wealth  and  conti- 
guity to  the  Capital  gave  them  control  of  the  departments 
of  the  Government;  that  Kentucky,  as  a  new  and  compar- 
atively feeble  State,  on  the  frontier  of  that  territory  out  of 
which  other  new  States  were  to  be  carved,  was  vitally  inter- 
ested in  this  construction  of  the  Constitution,  which,  if 
adopted,  would  insure  beyond  doubt  the  extension  of  the 
Union,  and  remove  all  danger  of  the  establishment  of 
another  Confederacy. 

This  lawyer  and  statesman  had  been  the  personal  friend 
and  neighbor  of  Jefferson,  had  served  with  distinction  in  the 
Virginia  House  of  Burgesses,  enjoyed  the  confidence  of 
Madison,  and  the  affectionate  friendship  of  Monroe,  and  his 
elder  brothers  '■■  possessed  the  respect  and  esteem  of  Ken- 
tucky. He  had  been  President  of  the  Democratic  Society 
of  Lexington,  and  for  awhile  Attorne\'  General  of  Ken- 
tucky.    Elected   to  the  Legislature  from   Fayette   in   May, 

1797,  he  had  become  interested  in  legal  reform,  and  in  May, 

1798,  was  re-elected.     After  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws 

*Gen.  Robert  Breckinridge  had  sat  in  some  of  the  Conventions,  been 
a  delegate  to  the  Virginia  House  and  was  first  Speaker  of  the  Kentucky 
House  of  Representatives. 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY.  29 

were  passed,  he,  with  his  young  family,  went  on  a  visit  to 
Albemarle  among  his  relatives  and  friends.  He  was  the 
friend  of  the  three  Nicholas  brothers,  Wilson  Gary,  George, 
and  John — all  of  whom  were  able  and  conspicuous  mem- 
bers of  the  Jeffersonian  party.  During  that  visit  to  Albe- 
marle, in  a  consultation  at  Monticello,  in  which  Jefferson, 
Wilson  Gary  Nicholas,  and  this  Kentuckian  were  present, 
the  Kentucky  and  Virginia  resolutions  of  1798  were  sub- 
stantially agreed  upon.  Madison  drafted  those  adopted  by 
Virginia.  From  1798  to  182 1  it  was  believed  that  John 
Breckinridge  drafted  those  Kentuck}'  adopted  ;  in  that  year 
Jefferson  made  the  claim  that  he  was  their  author.  * 

This  is  not  the  time  nor  place  to  enter  into  any  discus- 
sion of  the  disputed  authorship  of  these  celebrated  reso- 
lutions.     The  point  I  am  making  is,  that   Kentucky,  by  this 

*I  append  a  copy  of  the  celebrated  letter  in  which  Mr.  Jefferson  made 
that  claim  —  copied  from  the  original  letter  in  Mr  Jefferson's  peculiar 
hand-writing,  which  letter  is  now  in  my  possession .  It  is  addressed  to 
J.  Cabell  Breckinridge,  Frankfort,  Kentucky,  is  postmarked  Charlottes- 
ville   and  has  Mr    Jefferson's  frank  on  it. 

This  letter  is  published  in  the  correspondence  of  Mr.  Jefterson  as  "to 
Nicholas,  Esq."  Whether  the  editor  of  that  correspondence  fol- 
lowed an  indorsement  on  the  copy  of  the  letter  found  among  Mr  Jeffer- 
son's papers,  or  whether  the  mistake  is  that  of  the  editor,  I  know  not. 

It  may  not  he  improper  to  add  that  the  copy  of  the  Kentucky  resolutions 
sent  by  Mr  Jefferson  to  Mr.  Madison  on  November  17,  1798.  and  the  copy 
found  among  Mr.  Jefferson's  papers,  consist  of  eight  resolutions;  those 
adopted  by  the  Kentucky  Legislature  of  nine  ;  and  that  there  are  several 
differences  in  language  and  form  of  expressions: 

"  MONTICEI.LO,  December  11,  '21. 

"Dkau  SiK:  Your  letter  of  December  I9  places  me  under  a  dilemma 
which  I  cannot  solve,  but  by  an  exposition  of  the  naked  truth  I  would 
have  wished  this  rather  to  have  remained  as  hitherto  without  inquiry,  Ijut 
your  inquiries  have  a  right  to  l)e  answered.  I  will  do  it  as  e.\actly  as  the 
great  lapse  of  time  and  a  waning  memory  will  enable  me.  I  may  misre- 
meml)er  indifferent  circumstances,  Hut  can  be  right  in  substance.  At  the 
time  when  the  Republicans  of  our  country  were  so  much  alarmed  at  the 
proceedings  of  the  Federal  ascenilancy  in  Congress,  in  the  Executive  and 
the  Judiciary  departments,  it  became  a  matter  of  serious  consideration 
how  head  could  be  made  against  their  enterprises  on  the  Constitution  ;  the 
leading  Republicans  in  Congress  found  themselves  of  no  use  there;  brow- 
beaten as  tliey  were  by  a  bold  and  overwhelming  majority,  they  concluded 
to  retire  from  that  lield,  take  a  stand  in  their  Slate  Legislatures,  and 
endeavor  there  to  arrest  their  progress.  The  Alien  and  Se<lition  Law 
furnished  the  particular  occasion.  The  symi)athy  between  Virginia  anil 
Kentucky  was  more  cordial  and  more  intimately  conlidential  than  between 
any  other  two  States  of  Republican  policy.  Mr.  M  idison  came  into  the 
Virginia  Legislature  I  was  then  in  the  Vice- i'lesidency,  and  could  not 
leave  my  station;   but  your  father.  Col.  W.  C.  Nicholas,  and   myself,  hap- 


0,0  CENTENNIAI,  (  F.I.EBRATIOX. 

act,  formulated  for  the  first  time  that  distinct  theory  of 
our  constitutional  government,  upon  which  the  election  of 
Jefferson  in  1801  was  secured,  and  which  for  three-score 
years  was  accepted  by  the  dominant  party  of  the  country. 
Under  that  theory  the  era  of  good  will  under  Madison  and 
Monroe  became  possible. 

The  first  of  that  celebrated  series  has  been  so  often  the 
subject  of  earnest  discussion  and  fierce  denunciation,  that 
the  remaining  eight  of  them  have  been  forgotten.  What- 
ever may  be  the  errors  contained  in  this  instrument,  if  indeed 
there  be  any,  it  is  a  most  masterly  composition.  The  funda- 
mental general  principles  it  announces  as  applicable  to  all 
times  and  all  questions  are:  that  confidence  everywhere  is 
the  parent  of  despotism;  that  all  governments  possess  only 
such  powers  as  are  bestowed,  all  others  being  reserved  in 

pening  to  be  together,  the  engaging  the  co-operation  of  Kentucky  in  an 
enercretic  protestation  against  the  constitutionality  of  those  laws  became 
a  subject  of  consultation.  Those  gentlemen  pressed  me  strongly  to  sketch 
resolutions  for  that  purpose,  your  father  undertaking  to  introduce  them  to 
that  Legislature,  with  a  solemn  assurance,  which  I  strictly  required,  that 
it  should  not  be  known  from  what  quarter  they  came.  I  drew  and  deliv- 
ered them  to  him,  and  in  keeping  their  original  secret  he  fulfilled  his 
pledge  of  honor.  Some  years  after  this  Col.  Nicholas  asked  me  if  I  would 
have  any  objection  to  it  being  known  that  I  had  drawn  them.  I  pointedly 
enjoined  that  it  should  not.  Whether  he  had  unguardedly  intimated  it 
before  to  any  one  I  know  not,  but  I  afterwards  observed  in  the  papers 
repeated  imputations  of  them  to  me,  on  which,  as  has  been  my  practice 
on  all  occasions  of  imputation,  I  have  observed  entire  silence.  The  ques- 
tion, indeed,  has  never 'before  been  put  to  me  nor  should  I  answer  it  to 
any  other  than  yourself,  seeing  no  good  end  to  be  proposed  by  it,  and  the 
desire  of  tranquility  inducing  with  me  a  wish  to  be  withdrawn  from  public 
notice  Your  father's  zeal  and  talents  were  too  well  known  to  desire  any 
additional  distinction  from  the  penning  these  resolutions.  That  circum- 
stance surely  was  of  far  less  merit  than  the  proposing  and  carrying  them 
through  the  Legislature  of  his  State.  The  only  fact  in  this  statement  on 
which  my  memory  is  not  distinct,  is  the  time  and  occasion  of  the  consul- 
tation with  your  father  and  Mr.  Nicholas.  It  took  place  here  I  know,  but 
whether  any  other  person  was  present  or  communicated  with  is  my  doubt. 
I  think  Mr.  Madison  was  either  with  us  or  consulted,  but  my  memory  is 
uncertain  as  to  minute  details.  I  fear,  dear  sir,  we  are  now  in  such 
another  crisis,  with  this  difference  only,  that  the  judiciary  branch  is  alone 
and  single-handed  in  the  present  assaults  on  the  Constitution  ;  but  its 
assaults  are  more  sure  and  deadly,  as  from  an  agent,  seemingly  passive  and 
una-suming  May  you  and  your  cotemporaries  meet  them  with  the  same 
determination  and  effect  as  your  father  and  his  did  the  "Alien  and 
Sedition"  laws,  and  preserve  inviolate  a  Constitution  which,  cherished  in 
all  its  chastity  and  purity,  will  prove  in  the  end  a  blessing  to  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  With  these  prayers,  accept  those  for  your  own 
happiness  and  prosperity. 

"TH.  JEFFERSON. 
"For  T.  C^KEI.L  Breckinridge,  Frankfort,  Ky." 


BKIXKIXRIDGE  COUNTY.  :]1 

and  by  the  people ;  that  the  Constitution  of  State  and 
United  States  is  the  measure  of  the  powers  bestowed,  and 
not  the  discretion  of  the  government;  that  if  the  discretion 
of  the  government  be  the  measure  of  its  powers,  then  that 
government  is  a  despotism  ;  that  the  Federal  Constitution 
was  a  compact  entered  into  by  the  States  by  which  a  gov- 
ernment w'as  created,  all  of  whose  powers  were  delegated 
powers,  and  contained  in  that  compact,  and  that  of  neces- 
sity the  parties  to  that  compact  were  the  sole  judges,  each 
for  itself,  of  infractions  thereof,  and  the  redress  therefor. 
To  these  universal  principles  were  added  the  denunciation 
of  the  particular  acts  under  consideration,  and  the  reasons 
why  Kentucky  believed  them  to  be  unconstitutional. 

At  the  next  session  of  the  Legislature,  1799,  John  Breck- 
inridge became  Speaker,  and  in  Committee  of  the  Whole, 
Joseph  Desha  being  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  offered 
the  resolutions  of  1799,  of  which  he  was  the  undisputed 
author,  which  were  unanimously  adopted  ;  and  at  this  very 
session,  doubtless,  in  additional  indorsement  of  these  cher- 
ished views,  the  Legislature  created  this  county,  and  made 
it  a  memorial  of  its  esteem  and  admiration  for  that  Speaker. 

The  men  of  whom  the  Legislatures  of  1798  and  1799 
were  constituted  had  already  acquired  and  always  thereaf- 
ter retained  the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  State.  They 
had  been  among  her  soldiers  and  leaders  in  the  past  twenty- 
five  years.  Upon  them  she  showered  ever)'  honor  in  her 
gift  until  that  generation  gave  place  to  another. 

Alexander  Scott  Bullitt  had  been  President  of  the  Senate 
since  the  admission  of  the  State  into  the  Union,  and  became 
her  first  Lieutenant  Governor,  and  he  was  succeeded  as 
Lieutenant  Governor  by  John  Caldwell,  and  he  by  Gabriel 
Slaughter,  and  he  by  Richard  Hickman,  and  he  in  turn 
again  by  Gabriel  Slaughter,  who,  by  the  death  of  George 
Madison,  became  Governor,  and  gave  place  to  his  old  col- 
league in  the  House,  John  Adair,  who  was  followed  by  that 
Joseph  Desha,  who,  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  reported  the  resolutions  of  1799  to  the  House. 


32  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

In  the  meantime  John  Breckinridge  had  become  Senator, 
as  had  John  Adair  and  Buckner  Thurston,  the  old  clerk  of 
the  Senate,  and  Christopher  Greenup  Governor,  and  to  both 
sets  of  resolutions  had  the  honored  name  of  James  Garrard 
been  affixed. 

This  is  indeed  a  galaxy  of  stars  to  be  placed  in  the  crown 
of  our  State's  glory.  Garrard,  Bullitt,  Edmund  Bullock, 
Adair,  Slaughter,  Caldwell,  Hickman,  Greenup,  McClung; 
Russell,  who  followed  Campbell  and  Shelby  up  the  steep 
acclivity  where  Ferguson  died ;  Desha,  whose  grandfather 
fell  by  the  Indians  in  Tennessee,  and  whose  childhood  was 
spent  amidst  all  perils,  and  who  lived  to  share  in  the  triumph 
of  the  Thames;  Robert  Johnson,  the  noble  root  from  which 
has  sprung  a  noble  stock;  Green  Clay,  surveyor,  legislator, 
■soldier,  whose  descendants  have  deserved  well  of  their  coun- 
try. From  the  members  of  those  Legislatures  the  S'^ate 
chose  four  Governors,  four  Lieutenant  Governors,  at  least 
two  Senators,  and  many  Congressmen,  judges,  legislators. 

The  godfathers,  my  countrymen,  of  your  venerated  county, 
-deserve  your  veneration  and  gratitude  ;  no  royal  infant  was 
ever  surrounded  at  its  birth  with  a  more  imposing  circle; 
around  no  cradle  ever  gathered  a  nobler  group,  who  loved 
liberty,  bowed  in  obedience  to  order,  loved  their  race,  and 
feared  God. 

During  the  fierce  discussions  of  these  obnoxious  laws, 
and  the  heated  Presidential  election,  Kentucky  never  for 
one  moment  lost  sight  of  the  purpose  to  own  the  Missis- 
sippi. By  every  possible  means  this  was  kept  before  Con- 
gress, and  made  the  chief  object  of  her  servants'  in  the 
Federal  Congress.  It  was  because  Jefferson  was  known  to 
share  in  these  views  that  made  him  so  beloved  in  Kentucky, 
and  filled  all  her  borders  with  joy  when  the  news  of  his 
election  came ;  and  in  1803  she  saw  the  consummation  of 
these  labors.  Not  until  the  garrets  of  our  old  families  are 
searched,  and  the  old  moth-eaten  papers  examined  and 
weighed,  will  the  true  share  of  Kentuckj'  statesmen  in  the 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY.  S3 

glory    of  the    purchase   and    annexation    of   Louisiana   be 
known. 

These  resolutions  of  Kentucky,  adopted  in  1798  and 
1799,  were  the  platform  of  the  Jeffersonian  party,  the  first 
formulated  party  platform  in  the  history  of  American  poli- 
tics. Upon  them  that  election  turned.  It  is  not  saying  too 
much  that  the  re-election  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  the  continu- 
ance of  the  Federal  party  in  power  at  that  juncture  of 
public  affairs,  would  have  postponed,  if  not  prevented,  the 
purchase  and  annexation  of  Louisiana — nay,  would  have 
changed  the  policy  of  America  on  that  subject.  Let  this 
be  put  to  the  credit  of  this  platform,  and  the  State  who 
gave  it  her  solemn  legislative  and  executive  indorsement ; 
that  its  first-fruits  were  the  dawning  of  the  era  of  renewed 
fraternal  feeling,  the  awakening  in  Kentucky  and  the  South- 
west of  an  earnest  and  passionate  love  for  the  Union,  and 
the  annexation  of  the  father  of  waters,  and  all  the  unrivaled 
valley,  watered  by  its  tributaries. 

The  election  of  Jefferson  made  negotiation  with  France 
on  this  subject  possible.  With  surprise  did  we  receive  the 
offer  to  purchase  it;  and  for  a  moment  constitutional  scru- 
ples on  the  part  of  the  President  hindered;  but  this  hesita- 
tion continued  but  for  a  moment.  Although  he  believed 
that  under  that  Constitution  there  had  been  given  no  power 
to  the  General  Government  to  acquire  new  territory,  he  de- 
termined to  act,  and  then  appeal  to  the  States  to  render 
the  act  legal  by  a  constitutional  amendment.  Under  his 
instructions  Monroe  closed  the  treaty,  and  Louisiana — 
that  superb  and  magnificent  country,  now  teeming  with  its 
millions  of  freemen,  and  fast  becoming  the  very  centre  of 
power — became  part  of  free  America.  At  last  the  dream 
of  the  pioneer  was  realized,  and  from  the  Big  Sandy  to  the 
Gulf  the  glad  waters  laved  only  friendly  shores  and  yielded 
their  fruitful  bosoms  to  the  commerce  of  the  West. 

But  there  remained  the  unsettled  question,  "  Was  annex- 
ation of  territory  extra-constitutional?" 
3 


34  '  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

When  we  estimate  what  we  have  since  annexed — Florida, 
Texas,  Cahfornia,  the  territories  growing  into  States — we 
know  how  momentous  the  solution  of  this  problem  was. 
If  new  territory  could  be  acquired  only  through  the  slow 
and  doubtful  process  of  constitutional  amendment,  all  future 
annexation  became  doubtful  if  not  impossible.  John  Breck- 
inridge was  now  Senator,  and  Jefferson  selected  him  as  the 
mover  of  the  proper  constitutional  amendment.  That 
amendment,  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  own  handwriting,  as  sent  by 
him  to  John  Breckinridge,  I  now  hold  in  may  hand.     It  is  : 

A't'sohrd,  By  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States,  two-thirds  of  both  Houses  concurring,  that  the  following  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  be  proposed  to  the  Legisla- 
tures of  the  several  States,  which,  when  ratified  by  three  fourths  of  the 
said  Legislatures,  shall  be  valid  to  all  intents  and  purposes  as  a  part  of 
the  said  Constitution. 

"Louisiana,  as  ceded  by  France  to  the  United  States,  is  made  a  part  of 
the  United  States." 

But  not  even  the  great  influence  of  Jefferson  could  per- 
suade his  friends  that  the  United  States  could  not  by  treaty 
acquire  new  territory,  and  that  if  there  were  doubts,  those 
doubts  ought  to  be  forever  removed  by  this  precedent. 
These  views  prevailed,  and  to-day  it  is  no  idle  boast  that 
but  for  Kentucky  the  precedent  might  have  been  settled 
precisely  the  other  way,  and  sanctified  with  the  illustrious 
name  of  Jefferson.  If  it  had,  who  believes  that  Texas  and 
the  golden  slopes  on  the  Pacific  would  to-day  form  part  of 
our  dear  country,  and  share  with  us  the  glorious  prfvilege 
of  working  out  the  problem  of  American  liberty?* 

Here  I  close  this  review  of  the  pioneer  work  of  Ken- 
tucky.    Here  began  a  new  era  in  the  development  of  Amer- 

*  I  add  a  note  from  Mr.  Jefferson  to  John  Breckinridge,  dated  August 
i8,  1S03: 

"MONTICELLO,    August,     18,   '03. 

"Dear  Sir:  I  wrote  to  you  on  the  12th  inst.  on  the  subject  of  Louisiana 
and  the  constitutional  provision  which  might  be,  necessary  for  it.  A  letter 
received  yesterday  shows  that  nothing  must  be  said  on  that  subject  which 
may  give  a  pretext  for  retracting;  but  that  we  should  do,  sitd  sileiitio,  what 
shall  be  found  necessary.  Be  so  good,  therefore,  as  to  consider  that  part  of 
my  letter  confidential;  it  strengthens  the  reasons  for  desiring  the  presence 
of  every  fri-end  to  the  treaty  on  the  first  day  of  the  session.     Perhaps  you 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUXTY.  35 

ica.  It  was  now  settled  that  territories  could  be  transformed 
into  States  ;  that  equal  representation  and  universal  suffrage 
were  compatible  with  order  and  constitutional  government ; 
that  the  Constitution,  not  the  discretion  of  those  who  were 
in  temporary  control  of  the  Government,  was  the  measure 
of  the  powers  bestowed ;  that  the  powers  of  the  General 
Government  were  delegated  and  limited  powers;  that  the 
Union  formed  by  the  Constitution  was  a  Union  of  States,  into 
which  Union  new  States  could  be  admitted  on  equal  footing 
with  the  old;  and  that  this  Union  had  the  power  of  indefinite 
expansion  by  the  annexation  of  territory  to  be  carved  into 
States.  The  dream  of  the  fathers  had  indeed  been  fulfilled. 
As  the  survivors  of  the  dark  and  doubtful  days  from  1770 
to  1783  recalled  those  anxious  forecastings,  and  then  looked 
around  them  on  what  had  been  accomplished,  what  emo- 
tions of  grateful  joy  must  have  overflowed  their  hearts. 

I  have  desired,  as  my  contribution  to  this  memorial  day, 
to  put  together  some  scattered  evidences  of  the  part  the 
pioneers  of  Kentucky,  and  the  statesman  after  whom  your 
county  is  named,  played  in  securing  these  glorious  results. 
I  trust  I  have  not  overstepped  the  bounds  of  propriety  in 
my  utterances  concerning  that  statesman. 

can  impress  this  necessity  on  the  Senators  of  the  Western  States  by  private 
letter.  Accept  my  friendly  salutations  and  assurances  of  great  respect  and 
esteem. 

'  TH.  JEI-KERSON. 

"J.  Bkkckinkidge,  Esq  " 

To  those  who  are  familiar  with  this  subject,  the  proposed  amendment 
differs  from  those  suggested  by  Mr  Jefferson  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Madison 
of  August  25,  1803  and  to  Levi  Lincoln  in  his  letter  of  August  30,  1803. 
His  letter  to  Mr.  Breckinridge  of  August  12,  1803,  did  not  inclose  this 
proposed  amendment. 

The  manuscript  correspondence  of  Mr.  Moiirfjc-  .md  Mr  Breckinridge 
show  that  this  whole  subject  was  anxiously  discussctl  l)y  them  before  Mr. 
Monroe  went  to  Europe,  and  during  liis  stay  there;  and  tlie  manuscript 
correspondence  between  William  Cary  Nicholas  and  John  Breckinridge 
show  their  agreement  as  to  the  proposed  amendment. 

I  ought  to  state  that  I  had  at  one  time  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
paper  read  in  the  address  was  really  written  in  April,  iSpt).  wliiie  Mr. 
Breckinridge  was  Attorney  General ;  that  while  Jefferson  yielded  to  his 
friends  in  1803,  he  had  not  been  convinced,  and  desired  to  renew  the 
subject  after  his  party  had  become  stronger;  and  there  are  some  facts 
which  seem  to  establish  this.  I  have  no  doubt  that  there  were,  and 
probably  still  are,  private  papers  in  existence  which  would  conclusively 
settle  this  point. 


36  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

Here  to-day,  at  a  memorial  service,  conducted  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Breckinridge  Centennial  Association,  well 
may  many  ask  who  was  this  John  Breckinridge,  after  whom 
this  beautiful  county  was  named?  I  dare  not  venture  to 
answer  that  question  myself.  Another  more  eloquent  than 
I,  who,  himself,  deserved  well  of  his  State,  asked  and  an- 
swered that  question  years  ago.      His  answer  was: 

Who  was  John  Breckinridge?  I  liave  heard  of  a  man  of  that  name 
who,  being  left  at  a  very  tender  age  an  orphan  boy  of  slender  means  and 
delicate  constitution,  contrived,  no  one  could  tell  how,  in  one  of  the 
frontier  counties  of  Virginia,  to  make  himself  an  accurate  and  elegant 
scholar  by  the  time  of  life  at  which  most  youths  of  the  best  opportunities 
are  beginning  to  master  the  outposts  of  learning.  I  have  heard  that  he 
turned  this  early  and  unusual  school  craft  to  such  nccount,  and  mixed  his 
love  of  learning  wi\h  a  spirit  of  such  unconquera'uiu  energy,  that  with  his 
rifle  on  his  shoulder  and  his  surveying  implements  in  his  hands,  he  scoured 
the  frontiers  of  his  native  State,  exposed  every  hour  to  death  by  savage 
warriors,  that  with  the  price  of  his  toil  and  almost  of  his  blood,  he  might 
purchase  what  he  valued  above  the  body's  life — the  means  of  life  to  the 
spirit  —  that  enchanting  knowledge  for  which  his  henrt  panted. 

Old  men  have  told  me,  and  their  eyes  have  filled  with  tears  as  they 
dwelt  on  the  name  of  the  beloved  lad,  that  when  he  had  left  his  mountain 
home  for  the  ancient  institution  of  Williamsburg,  eagerly  bent  on  knowing 
what  he  might,  and  while  yet  a  minor,  his  native  county  appalled  him  by 
an  order  to  represent  her  interests  and  honor  in  the  legislative  halls  of 
the  most  renowned  of  our  Commonwealths;  and  I  have  heard  that  from 
that  day  forward,  for  a  period  of  six  and  twenty  years,  he  lived  continually 
in  the  public  eye,  until  1806  he  was  prematurely  cut  off  in  the  very  flower 
of  his  manhood,  and  when  the  richest  fruits  of  such  a  life  were  only 
beginning  to  ripen. 

As  an  advocate,  the  mention  of  his  name,  even  in  remote  connection 
with  that  of  Patrick  Henry,  who  was  still  in  his  meridian  splendor  when 
the  young  backwoodsman  met  him  at  the  bar,  is  enough  to  prove  that 
from  the  start  the  goal  was  in  his  reach.  As  a  lawyer,  learned,  great,  and 
full  of  strength,  the  man  who  was  the  constant  rival  of  George  Nicholas, 
and  out  of  all  other  professional  comparison,  and  who,  when  just  turned 
of  forty,  and  at  a  period  of  our  history  when  distinguished  merit  was  an 
indispensable  requisite  for  high  office,  became  Attorney  General  of  the 
United  States,  had  name  enough.  As  a  politician,  the  leader  of  the  first 
Democratic  Senate  that  ever  met  under  the  present  Government  of  the 
United  States,  the  compeer  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe,  and  their 
confidential  friend,  the  author  of  the  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1798,  which 
constituted  the  earliest  and  the  boldest  movement  of  that  great  era,  and 
which  were  drawn  with  such  consummate  ability  that  Mr.  Jefferson  con- 


BRECKINRIDGE  COUNTY.  37 

siclered  it  too  great  an  addition  to  his  fame  to  be  reputed  their  author, 
ever  openly  to  deny  it,  niay  justly  be  called  great. 

As  a  statesman,  the  present  Constitution  of  Kentucky,  of  which  he, 
more  than  any  man,  was  the  undoubted  author,  and  which  the  people  of 
that  State,  after  a  trial  of  more  than  forty  years,  refuse  to  alter  ;  the 
Criminal  Code  of  that  State  the  most  humane  that  exists,  and  which  in 
its  great  outlines  is  the  work  of  his  hands;  the  opposition  to  Jay's  treaty; 
the  securing  the  exclusive  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  the  subsequent 
purchase  of  Louisiana,  and  the  incalculable  influence  of  these  events  upon 
the  destinies  of  this  great  nation — ideas  which  the  proof  is  complete  had 
their  origin  in  those  Democratic  societies  of  the  West  of  which  he  and 
that  far-sighted  patriot,  George  Nicholas,  were  the  life  and  soul — place  him 
in  the  very  front  rank. 

Of  the  private  life  of  this  man,  I  have  heard  a  character  still  more 
remarkable.  Simple  in  his  manners,  grave  and  lofty  in  his  carriage,  self- 
denied  in  his  personal  habits,  and  a  stranger  to  the  common  wants  and 
infirmities  of  man,  no  efforts  were  too  great,  no  labors  too  immense,  no 
vigils  too  protracted,  no  dangers  too  imminent,  no  difficulties  too  insur- 
mountable for  his  great,  concentrated,  indomitable  energies.  And  yet 
this  firm  and  earnest  spirit  and  this  vigor  almost  austere  were  tempered 
by  a  gentleness  towards  those  he  loved,  so  tender  that  the  devotion  of  his 
friends  knew  no  bounds;  and  directed  by  a  frankness  and  generosity 
towards  all  men,  so  striking  and  absolute,  that  even  those  he  could  not 
trust,  trusted  him  If  men  have  told  me  truth,  his  was  a  life  from 
beginning  to  end  most  imposing  and  illustrious;  a  character  in  all  respects 
noble  and  pure.  He  was  a  man  whom  all  noted  while  he  walked  amongst 
them,  and  when  he  fell  all  men  mourned. 

In  1800  Kentucky  had  a  population  of  220,985,  and  in 
1810  of  406,51 1,  and  had  increased  with  even  greater  pro- 
portionate rapidity  in  wealth  and  the  luxuries  which  wealth 
brings.  She  had  led  in  all  literary  and  religious  nio\'einents. 
She  had  outgrown  the  old  days  of  her  pioneer  struggles,  and 
had  settled  all  those  scores  but  one.  The  ancient  enemy 
was  yet  unconquered.  They  who  led  the  bands  against  the 
log  stations  in  the  virgin  cane,  whose  scalping-knives  had 
been  bloody  with  precious  blood,  who  filled  Kentucky  with 
universal  mourning  for  the  slain  of  Blue  Lick — the  story  of 
which  tragic  disaster  has  been  so  lately  told  in  eloquent 
prose  and  stately  poetry — were  yet  the  allies  of  Great 
Britain.  This  debt,  made  thousand-fold  greater  by  the 
dead  of  Tippecanoe  and  the  slain  of  Raisin  river,  was  paid 
at  the  Thames,  where  Tecumseh  fell,  and  at  New  Orleans, 


38  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

where  British  valor  broke  its  waves  on  the  cotton  bulwarks 
of  Western  soldiery. 

Here  we  pause;  for  in  the  war  of  1812  only  a  few  of  old 
pioneers — Nestors  like  Shelby — took  part.  A  new  race  of 
men  were  in  power.  The  age  of  the  pioneer  was  ended; 
the  era  of  the  settler  had  passed.  It  is  of  their  era  and  of 
their  work  alone  that  I  desire  to  speak,  and  for  that  reason, 
in  part,  I  have  not  ventured  into  the  inviting  field  of  the 
local  history  of  this  county.  A  graceful  pen,  however,  has 
put  on  record  this  chapter  of  Kentucky  history.  A  more 
fascinating  chapter  of  the  tragic  and  romantic  days  of  the  In- 
dian fighter  has  never  been  written  than  that  we  have  this 
day  listened  to.  I  know  this  vast  audience  unites  with  me 
in  the  urgent  request  that  he  bring  it  down  to  today.  But 
there  is  one  episode  that  is  so  touching  that  I  cannot  refrain 
from  an  allusion  to  it.  Rich,  indeed,  must  be  the  commin- 
gled blood  of  Benjamin  Logan,  John  Allen,  and  John  Crit- 
tenden; and  he  whose  heart  was  warmed  with  its  pulsations 
must  be  easily  touched  by  any  tale  of  oppression,  and  eager 
to  take  any  risk  to  give  aid.  In  the  youthful  ear  of  a  gal- 
lant scion  of  these  families  were  poured  stories  of  Spanish 
oppression,  and  of  Cuban  yearning  to  be  free;  and  with  all 
the  ardor  of  his  nature,  and  all  the  bravery  of  his  sires,  he 
embarked  in  that  disastrous  expedition  to  Cuba.  And  in 
the  plaza  at  Havana,  with  unblanched  face,  he  refused  to 
kneel,  saying,  with  the  chivalric  mingling  of  the  thought  of 
God  and  woman,  the  sweet,  reverent  intertwining  of  wor- 
shipful love  for  God  and  mother  and  sweetheart  that  marked 
the  tender  but  heroic  crusader,  "a  Kentuckian  kneels  to 
none  but  God  and  his  sweetheart,"  he  gave  his  life  to  his 
murderers.  The  comrades  who  fought  under  his  command, 
and  died  at  his  side  under  that  murderous  fire,  were  worthy 
to  die  with  him — to  them  death  brought  no  fear.  If  mis- 
guided, they  paid  the  penalty  with  their  lives ;  and  never, 
under  the  Cid  or  by  the  side  of  the  cavalier  who  drove  the 
crescent  before  the  cross,  fought  or  died  more  knightly  cru- 
saders.    That  Kentucky  blood  sanctifies  that  Cuban  plaza, 


BRECKTNRTDGE  COUNTY.  39 

and  in  the  days  to  come,  some  English-speaking  orator  will, 
on  that  very  spot,  recount  the  sad  and  melting  story. 

I  venture  to  add,  that  the  children  of  these  pioneers  have 
been  worthy  of  their  sires.  Buena  Vista  and  Mexico,  the 
sad  but  glorious  fields  of  the  late  unhappy  war,  bore  im- 
perishable testimony  that  those  who  fell  at  Kings  Mountain 
and  conquered  at  Yorktown,  who  wrestled  with  Indian  foe 
and  died  at  Blue  Licks,  were  no  braver  men  or  stouter  sol- 
diers than  their  grandsons  who  fell  with  their  feet  to  the  foe 
'and  their  faces  to  heaven. 

And  as  the  foundation  and  development  of  the  States  of 
the  West  and  the  Southwest  and  of  the  Pacific  slope  are 
told,  familiar  Kentucky  names  fall  on  our  pleased  ears;  and 
the  sons,  like  the  fathers,  are  builders  of  States.  My  coun- 
trymen, this  is  the  peculiar  destiny  of  our  race.  As  I  recall 
all  Kentucky  has  done  for  mankind  and  liberty,  and  realize 
all  she  is  to-day,  my  heart  thrills  with  thanksgiving  that  my 
lot  was  cast  with  her.  But  it  is  not  because  m}^  horizon 
is  limited  by  her  eastern  hills  or  western  river;  nay,  but 
because  I  take  in  the  wide  sweep  of  my  contemplation  the 
leadership  that  our  race  has  in  the  world's  progress,  and  for 
my  country  we  claim  the  head  of  that  column.     , 

As  I  look  once  more  at  the  universal  map,  and  see  what 
part  Great  Britain  and  America  bear  in  all  that  adds  to  the 
good  of  man  and  gives  glory  to  God;  as  I  try  to  imagine 
what  added  power  will  be  given  by  another  hundred  years 
to  this  English-speaking  race,  I  rejoice  that  our  State  and 
our  kinsmen  have  done  their  full  share  in  all  of  the  past,  and 
are  doing  it  in  the  present.  A  pure,  yet  free  religion,  lib- 
erty regulated  by  law,  order  protected  by  the  love  of  the 
free,  chaste  homes  where  open  Bibles  and  virtuous  women 
shed  the  blended  radiance  of  heaven  and  earth  on  the 
children  of  those  who  have  conquered  every  foe  who  op- 
posed the  onward  march  of  these  lofty  and  pervasive  ideas — 
these  conservative  and  peaceful  influences,  these  irresistible 
agencies  for  good — give  assurance  that  the  future  of  this 
race  will  be  fruitful  in  blessing. 


40  CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION. 

Already  America  is  conquered  by  this  tongue;  the  an- 
cient prejudices  and  older  religions  of  India  are  quietly 
melting  before  the  steady  heat  of  English  justice;  Aus- 
traliai  like  a  young  giant,  is  striding  towards  empire  ;  in 
Africa  the  leaven  has  been  hid  in  the  weighty  measures  of 
meal.  The  subtle  force  of  this  civilization  is  making  itself 
felt  in  China.  It  is  a  civilization  and  a  language  worthy  of 
leadership. 

We  are    no    longer    pioneers:  we  are  not  called  to  their 
work.     But  every  day  has  its  own  problems,  every  era  its  «i 
own  questions,  every  State  its  own  labors. 

We  are  not  called  to  deeds  of  blood,  of  rude  combat  in 
forest ;  but  the  struggle  is  as  real,  the  combat  is  as  danger- 
ous. All  lead  or  follow.  Leadership  is  not  by  accident  nor 
to  the  weak;  mastery  comes  not  to  the  slothful  nor  to  the 
cowardly.  Kentucky  can  be  towards  the  head — nay  at  the 
head,  of  this  onward  marching  column  of  American  States. 
To  do  this,  her  mines  must  be  opened,  her  mountains  tun- 
neled, her  rivers  bridged,  her  waste  land  tilled  ;  still  more, 
law  must  reign  supreme  in  her  borders,  education  be  hon- 
ored in  her  children,  religion  be  obeyed  in  her  homes.  Rich 
in  her  natural  resources,  richer  in  the  fame  of  her  sons  and 
the  traditions  of  her  past,  still  richer  in  the  qualities  of  her 
people,  Kentucky  this  day  turns  her  face  from  the  Past  to 
the  rising  sun  of  the  Future,  and  with  glad,  brave  heart 
enters  into  the  life  that  lies  before  her.  And  we,  her  chil- 
dren, with  proud  thanksgiving  for  that  Past,  and  with 
tender  love  for  our  mother  Commonwealth,  do  here,  on  this 
holy  ground,  sanctified  by  patriot  blood  and  womanly 
sacrifice,  conscious  of  the  invisible  presence  of  the  shades 
of  the  heroic  dead,  re  consecrate  ourselves  to  the  service  of 
the  State,  to  the  supremacy  of  law.  to  the  preservation  of  a 
true  liberty,  to  the  weal  of  a  compacted  Union,  and  to  the 
progress  of  a  common  race,  appealing  to  the  Searcher  of 
Hearts,  who  doeth  His  will  in  the  army  of  heaven  and 
among  the  inhabitants  of  earth,  to  attest  the  sincerity  of  our 
vow,  and  for  His  omnipotent  aid. 


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